President Li Heads Delegation to Visit Europe

Li Peigen, President of HUST, headed a delegation to visit Germany and Switzerland between Oct. 4-14, at the invitation of Professor Bernd Engle, President of University of Tubingen in Germany. The main task of the visit was to attend the Fourth China-Germany University Presidents Forum 2009, while meeting Prof. Graezel and relevant authorities of Lausanne Federal Polytechnic University, and visiting prestigious scholars for the purpose of recruiting talents.

The China-Germany University Presidents Forum 2009, with the theme "Mutual benefit and sustainability in China-Germany Scientific Research and Educational Cooperation", jointly sponsored by Tubingen University and Tongji University, was held in Tubingen, Germany from Oct. 5 to 7. The forum displayed four fruitful cooperative programs between Chinese and German universities, which much enlightened the delegates present. The prospect of this forum was also on the agenda. Pei Gang, President of TongJi University proposed in the plenary session that HUST host the Fifth China-Germany University President Forum. President Li accepted this challenging task on behalf of HUST, and expressed warm welcome to member universities to visit our university. Meng Liqiu, Vice President of Technical University of Muenchen, took the initiative to co-host the next forum with HUST in 2011. During the forum, Li Peigen exchanged ideas with principals from RWTH Aachen, Technical University of Muenchen, TU9 a league of 9 famous German universities of technology and professors from University of Heidelberg respectively.

Li, together with his delegation, made a special train trip to Lausanne, Switzerland the very night after the forum.

He met with Prof. Michael Graetzel, the world-famous expert in solar cell and some principals from EcolePolytechnique Federale de Lausanne EPFL . During the friendly and frank talks with Prof. Graetzel, significant cooperative details were discussed, including HUST s establishment of a Research Center named after Prof. Graetzel.

In the following days, President Li Peigen led the delegation to pay a visit to Yu Qingquan, physicist from Max
Planck Institute for Plasma Physics; Prof. Li Shuming and Doc. An Hangxiang, from Marburg University, Prof. Zhong Xiaoyan from University of Basel Switzerland, Doc. Wang Qing and Doc. Yan Pu from University of Lausanne Switzerland and Guo Xin, senior research scientist from Juelich Research Center of Germany. Due to a tight schedule, Li Peigen authorized Lin Lin, Executive Assistant to the President, and Qin Xuanbin, Deputy Director of Personnel Department, to make a special trip to Sweden, calling on Qiu Min, Associate Professor of Swedish Royal Institute of Technology.

With the assistance of Division of Education of the Chinese Embassy to Switzerland, Li Peigen had informal
discussions with eight PhD student representatives and the work staff of the division in Lausanne. During these
meetings and discussions, Li had a thorough exchange of opinions with overseas Chinese scholars, introducing to them the development and the urgent needs of talents at HUST, answering their questions, encouraging and welcoming them back home to work for HUST. Deeply impressed by Li's personal visit, the overseas Chinese scholars and students expressed their thoughts of strengthening the cooperation and connection with HUST through different channels, and their wish to devote themselves to motherland and work for HUST.

Li expressed that the visit to Europe just raised the curtain on recruiting the overseas talents. The next step will be gathering and collecting a big group of overseas excellent scholars in various approaches, establishing a platform for communication and contact, and keeping track of them to introduce them back to work in our country, thus providing strong support of talents for establishing a world-class university.

Lin Lin, Executive Assistant to the President and the Party Chief of Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics WNLO and School of Optoelectronics, Li Hao, Director of the International Exchange Center, and Qin Xuanbin, Deputy Director of the Personnel Department, paid the visit as members of the delegation.